The decision in question evaluated that META’s combination of the data of users who had created Threads profiles based on their Instagram accounts, without providing users with a consent option, would cause irreparable damage until the investigation was completed. Moreover

• Because META has been active on the market for many years, it has an extensive and detailed data collection,
• The size and diversity of META’s user base makes META services attractive to advertisers,
• This situation allows META to allocate more resources to the development of services and makes it difficult for competitors to access advertisers and therefore financial resources, and in this context, META’s activities create an entry barrier to the market;
• In addition, META operates as an ecosystem with the basic and related services it offers, and this allows META to transfer the power and knowledge it obtains from one service to another service and increases its market power.
observations made.

In the context of the current findings; The implementation of temporary measures to prevent the data merging behavior that may occur as a result of the data transfer mechanism between Instagram and Threads, and from 20.02.2024, for each day that passes until the compliance measures that will be proposed by META and will meet the requirements of the Temporary Measure Decree are included in the administration of the Competition Authority, 2022 is excluded. It was decided to impose an administrative fine of TL 4,796,152.96 based on net income.

In the ongoing process, in order to comply with the Competition Council’s provisional measures decision, suggestions were made by META in the form of “use without profile”, including the practices previously introduced for users in the European Union, but these suggestions were not implemented.

• Requirement of an Instagram account to use Threads (active or passive Instagram user account),
• Continued data merging for people who continue to use Threads with their existing profiles,
• Unprofiled usage causes lower quality of service compared to profiled usage, and therefore users are forced to consent to data merging by interfering with their will and leading them to profiled usage.
For these reasons, it was not considered to be at a level that would address concerns about the combination of data and was ultimately not accepted at the Board of Directors meeting of March 14, 2024.

This time by META on 15.04.2024; It has been announced that the Threads service will be officially discontinued in Turkey from 29.04.2024 and users in Turkey will no longer be able to use Threads from this date. META stated that with the suspension of Threads, there will no longer be any data flow between Threads and Instagram, that Threads will be made available again in Turkey after it is decided that the requirements of the interim injunction order have been met, and that users will be able to access a screen where they can download information related to their Threads profiles or delete their profiles if they wish.

In the petition dated 02.05.2024, submitted by META to the Competition Authority, it was stated that from 30.04.2024, META has disabled the profiles of all Threads users in Turkey and that Turkish users will no longer be able to use Threads from this date. .

Subsequently, by the Competition Council on 03.05.2024,

• META’s solution proposals for the suspension of Threads’ activities in Turkey leave the obligations under the provisional ban decision irrelevant and are therefore compatible with the provisional ban decision,
• The daily administrative fine imposed on META will be terminated and a total administrative fine of 335,730,707.20 TL will be imposed for 70 days starting on 20.02.2024 and ending on 29.04.2024.
decided.